Wegman’s has donated $20,000 to the Village of Brockport for the purchase of playground equipment for South Avenue Park. Brockport Mayor Margay Blackman announced the donation during the March 6 meeting of the Village Board.
Phase one of improvements to the park were completed in the fall of 2016. The mayor said the Wegman’s donation will cover phase two improvements. She said Village Trustee John LaPierre and Hanny Heyen, chair of the village’s Parks Committee, had been working with Wegman’s to secure a donation.
Village leaders were impressed with the size of the donation. “It’s good news for South Avenue Park,” Trustee Annie Crane said.
Currently the South Avenue Park has four pieces of equipment and parks committee members have said they hope to add pieces specifically for toddlers in the future.
In other business, Mayor Blackman discussed the 2017/18 village budget.
“I give credit to (village treasurer) Dan Hendricks,” she said. “He has done such a good job putting the budget together.”
The tax levy increases slightly in the proposed budget, Mayor Blackman said, but comes in $7,460 below the tax cap. That results in a tax rate of $11.98/$1,000, eleven cents higher than the current rate of $11.87/$1,000. “That means a village resident with a home valued at $100,000 will pay $11 more in taxes next year,” she said.
The new budget also adjusts salaries of elected officials. Mayor Blackman explained that the adjustment will restore the salaries of trustees and the mayor to 2009 levels over the next several years.
“Back when the village was in fiscal distress, the trustees took a 25 percent pay cut,” she said. The mayor’s salary was also adjusted at that time.
Under the 2017/18 budget, salaries would increase $286.50 each for trustees and the mayor. Continuing the increase for three additional years – to 2020/21 – would bring the salaries back to the 2009 level – $4,590 for a trustee and $11,013 for the mayor.
Village justices receive a 2.5 percent salary increase under the 2017/18 budget proposal. A budget hearing is planned for Monday, April 3.
Mayor Blackman also reported that the village received a payment of $423,193 in sales tax distribution from Monroe County for the fourth quarter. “It’s an important piece of (the village) budget,” she said.
The mayor explained sales tax distribution accounts for about one-third of the village budget and is distributed by the county based on population and assessment.
“That’s up $9,600 from the same quarter last year – one thing that’s not going down – and that’s good news,” she said.
State Aid to SUNY municipalities
Mayor Blackman said she recently wrote a letter signed by mayors of villages across the state which host SUNY campuses, urging state lawmakers to pass State Aid to Municipalities with SUNY Residential Institutions.
The letter was sent to all 235 lawmakers in the State Assembly and Senate, Mayor Blackman said. “It could really help Brockport,” she noted of the proposed $12 million in aid.
“Tax exempt property (in one case as much as 90 percent of the municipality) is a leading cause of high property taxes in our communities,” the mayor’s letter states. “Tax rates in nine of the SUNY municipalities range from $11/1,000 to over $23/1,000 … The proposed state aid is about providing much needed financial aid to SUNY municipalities but it is also about securing the larger environment in which SUNY students spend their college years.”
The mayor wrote that high property tax rates in SUNY municipalities make it difficult for them to continue to provide the services residents need as well as services which must be provided for SUNY institutions, “the most important of which is public safety. In turn, high local property tax rates deter SUNY faculty and staff from purchasing homes in our municipalities,” she wrote. “The amount is modest – $12 million – in a proposed state budget of $152 billion, but it is clearly a proposal with much bang for the buck, not only for SUNY host communities, but for the SUNY system as well.”
The aid could be passed as part of the state’s 2017-18 budget.
